1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a photoelectric transducer. More particularly it relates to a photoelectric transducer of the kind for supplying energy to actuators and sensors in a micromachine body or in work modules of the micromachine.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
The work modules of a micromachine have numerous actuators and sensors packaged therein. The most popular of the methods to be conceived for supplying energy to the modules body and the component units thereof comprises a transmission of electrical power using an electric wire. The complicated distribution of numerous wires required for the supply of energy to the driving units disposed within a tiny area involves tedious work and, particularly in the case of a micromachine, imposes a restriction on the mechanical motion thereof. The fine and long wires used for the distribution have the problem of inducing heavy losses in the power being transmitted via the wires, not to mention the loss of power due to Joulean heat.
As a means to supply electrical energy to a load without the use of wire distribution, an item called a photoelectromagnetic element has been used and disclosed in JP-A-3-62,305(1991). This photoelectromagnetic element has a photoelectric transducing element, a thin film coil, and a magnetic path formed on the same substrate for the purpose of supplying the electrical power produced by the photoelectric transducing element without the use of distribution wires to the coils of such devices as the thin film magnetic head and the thin film transformer which require the electrical energy. The electrical power obtained by this element is so small that in order to heighten this electrical power to a certain level it is necessary to enlarge the area assigned to the photoelectric transducing element and increase the capacity of the photoelectric transducing element itself for generation of the electrical power. Since the element must be irradiated with light of a very high intensity, it cannot be used by itself as a sufficient power source for the micromachine. The photoelectromagnetic element thus disclosed may preferably be operated so as to produce on the secondary coil side a voltage higher than the voltage produced by the photoelectric transducing element by using the thin film transformer as a voltage transformer and the coil on the substrate as the primary coil of the voltage transformer. Since the voltage transformation requires an alternating current on the primary coil side, the electrophotomagnetic element must adopt some secondary means or measure other than the element body for the purpose of causing the light irradiating on the photoelectric transducing element to be chopped and consequently reduced into alternating flows of light. As the energy source for the micromachine, therefore, the electrophotomagnetic element cannot be easily used.
An object of this invention, therefore, is to provide a novel photoelectric transducer.
Another object of this invention is to provide a photoelectric transducer which effects conversion of a light energy into electricity by means of a photoelectric transducing element and which, therefore, can be ideally utilized as an electrical energy source for actuators and sensors in the work modules of a micromachine.